Should Trump keep Pence on the ticket in 2020?

Story TOpics

Donald Trump said Wednesday that as president he would fight in court for greater freedom of religious expression because America is trying to sanitize Christianity from the public square.

“A week doesn’t go by where there’s not some negative ruling on something having to do with Christianity,” Mr. Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt. “I’ll be fighting on the other side much stronger than anybody else that you have up there fighting, because I think it’s really outrageous.”

Mr. Hewitt asked the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination whether the Gospels would inform his public-policy choices in the White House. Mr. Trump was raised as a Presbyterian and later joined the Marble Collegiate Church in New York when Norman Vincent Peale was the minister.

The real estate mogul said of the Gospels that “deep down, maybe they do” influence his decision-making. For example, Mr. Trump said, he is offended that “the word Christmas is being taken out” of the holiday.

“I see these stores like Macy’s and so many others — they’re afraid to use the word ‘Christmas’ now,” Mr. Trump said. “Maybe they can’t use it, legally. What’s going on is outrageous, and I would try and, not only try, I will do things about it. You’re going to have to go through court systems. That’s the problem. You have to go through actually courts now to use names that you should be able to use automatically.”

Asked about a move by the Denver City Council to prevent Chick-fil-A from opening an outlet at Denver International Airport because the restaurant chain’s founders are evangelical and believe in traditional marriage, Mr. Trump said he hadn’t heard about the controversy. But he said “it’s horrible.”

“You can’t do anything having to do with really deep-seated, incredible beliefs that really, to a large extent, made our country great,” Mr. Trump said. “You know, these, the beliefs in the Bible had a lot to do with our country.”

Robin Kniech, Denver City Council’s first openly gay member, said she is reluctant to approve a franchise at the airport for a company that has used “corporate profits … to fund and fuel discrimination.”